A woman was left heartbroken after she was banned from visiting a chimpanzee at a zoo.
Adie Timmersman has been visiting a 38-year-old chimpanzee at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium for four years and claims that they are ‘having an affair.’
But Antwerp Zoo has now informed her that she is banned from making contact with the chimp, who has been excluded from other chimps.
“I love that animal and he loves me,” Timmermans told regional news channel ATV.
“I haven’t got anything else. Why do they want to take that away?”
The devastated woman says it is not fair that other visitors are allowed to see Chita.
“We’re having an affair, I’ll just say,” she expressed. “Other dozens of visitors are allowed to make contact. Then why not me?”
The zoo said that Chita’s wellbeing may eventually suffer if his relationship with the woman goes on.
“Outside of visiting hours at the zoo, he has to manage 15 hours (a day) in his group. We want to give him the chance to be as happy as possible,” Antwerp Zoo said.
A spokesperson for the zoo said that other chimps excluded Chita if he had contact with humans.
“When Chita is constantly busy with visitors, the other monkeys ignore him and don’t consider him part of the group, even though that is important. He then sits on his own outside of visiting hours,” the spokesperson said.
Sarah Lafaut, curator at the Antwerp Zoo, told Radio 2 Antwerp: “Of course we are happy when our visitors feel so involved with the animals, but animal welfare comes first here.
“Chita was brought to the zoo 30 years ago because he was a pet at the time and became unmanageable. He learned chimpanzee behavior with us, but the interest in humans has remained.”
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